Tuesday 31 August 2010

Thick fog shrouded Migrant Alley as I walked through it to get to work this morning, but I did spot a small bird flitting up the hedgerow in front of me, which turned out to be a LESSER WHITETHROAT, a bird on passage no doubt.

This afternoons visit was a productive one. I returned to Migrant Alley, as I had already noted 2 more WHINCHAT and a WHEATEAR whilst walking back through from work, I was hoping to find maybe a Redstart had dropped in with them, and so give me the one more species I needed to make this month the best ever for species recorded, but it failed to show up :-)

Anyway I cant complain at 2 Whinchat and a Wheatear! Great records for my patch. As well as those two passage migrants, I also found a SEDGE WARBLER in the Greenhouse Complex, this could have been the one in the Boundary Hedgerow I saw yesterday afternoon, either way it's only the third one seen this year, all in this month, and made up a brilliant trio of visiting migrants - well happy with that. :-)

Well the last visit of August was a good one, and reflected the month as a whole, here are some August stats.

Species recorded - 78 joint best ever monthly tally ( equal with Sept 2009)

The combined species total for all Augusts is now 84. A much more realistic total than the 77 I started with, which put it in last place, now it's in joint 5th place with July.

Birds recorded this August and not in previous Augusts were -
Little Egret, Egyptian Goose, Marsh Harrier, Coot, Lapwing, Greenshank, and Tawny Owl.

The August mean species count is now 65.9, showing just how good this month was.

Photo's today are: The Wheatear................

...............and below, the Wheatear again, with his travelling companions the Whinchats. Quite something to get them all together like this! If you click on the photo and enlarge it, you can appreciate the exquisite markings on the Whinchats back, - even thought the photo is pretty rubbish.


Also the the Sedge Warbler.

Oh! Of course the SPARROWHAWK, it wouldn't be the same if one of these didn't come over :-)





8 comments:

Sharon said...

Very impressive stats Warren, you should be well pleased with that!
Wonder what Sept will bring?!

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Three great birds in one shot , can't be bad .
Well done with the August total .

Derek Faulkner said...

Warren,

This afternoon was very productive indeed - I managed to get the sun bed out for the first time in weeks!
Pre-dawn visit to the reserve in the morning with my hard hat and flack jacket.

ShySongbird said...

Well done Warren! Great photos too, the first is a beauty :) Nice one of the Sparrowhawk too.

kirstallcreatures said...

Its a lovely pic of the Wheatear and Whinchats Warren.

Adam said...

Great shot of the 3 birds together Warren.

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Chris said...

Wow excellent Warren... you know tons of conservation organisms will be delighted to get your data ;-) You got beautiful shot of the weather and winchat.... You know what, for the first time in seven years, I've taken pictures of weather in my garden this afternoon... This is the first time I see one on the rocks behind the kitchen!!

Anonymous said...

Well done with what you achieved this August, Warren. Truly well deserved.
Have a great Sept.